Thanks to an operating concept using a smart button, Hansgrohe brings innovative comfort functions into the bathroom.

Schiltach, January 2013. What we expect first and foremost from innovations is that they will not make our lives more complicated, but easier and more comfortable instead. Simplicity is the saving grace that gets us through our ever more complex everyday lives. Working from this basis, the Black Forest-based bathroom specialist Hansgrohe (www.hansgrohe.com), in cooperation with its long-standing partner Phoenix Design, has come up with a new – and strikingly obvious – operating concept for its products. “We listened to our customers, and we understood what they wanted: technology should make taking a shower easier, more comfortable and more enjoyable. If we can succeed in making good design and comfort functions go hand-in-hand, this results in products that enhance the quality of the users’ everyday lives,” says Jan Heisterhagen, Head of Hansgrohe’s Product Management. “This is why our latest milestone doesn’t come with a complex set of user instructions, but simply in the form of an elegant button with which we can control the water source with a simple click.”

The idea underlying the new operating concept is to move from twisting knobs to using a simple push-button. And that goes for the entire product range. Pushing a button has become a perfectly natural way for us all to control various aspects and functions in our everyday lives. Just think of light switches, the telephone, or mouse buttons. So why should the various jets in a hand shower also not be switched by the push of a button? When it comes to controlling water in the bathroom in particular, a reliable mechanical control will always be preferable to complex, error-prone electronics.

The ballpoint pen principle

“The key question we had to ask ourselves was, how can a rotational movement be actuated by the push of a button? That was until we took a closer look at the ballpoint pen,” recalls Jan Heisterhagen. The basic problem was solved, but it still took a whole lot of creative effort before the new Hansgrohe Select technology was fully developed. “While using this technology feels like you are operating an electronic product, it has the added benefit of its mechanical reliability,” says Jan Heisterhagen.

The PuraVida hand shower was the first product for which Hansgrohe and Phoenix Design implemented the new operating concept, back in 2009. From then on, the developers were able to dispense with the need for the rotating shower face with the small lever. “We felt that switching from one type of spray to another using the rotating disc just seemed too complicated: you need both hands, and you have to look at where the water is coming from, and if there are some limescale deposits in the shower head, it can also take quite a bit of effort – whereas with the Select button, it’s just so much easier. The direct action-reaction response you feel when you operate something by pushing a button – well, it’s fun,” says Jan Heisterhagen. The new Select technology has a further key advantage: “Integrating the function into the design opened up a whole new scope
in terms of designing the overall shape. We were no longer compelled to make the design fit the rotating disc.”

Hansgrohe Select web special 

It is hardly surprising, then, that in light of the many advantages, the Hansgrohe specialists decided to integrate the Select technology into their successful product range. “With Raindance Select, the Ecostat Select thermostats, and an entirely new product category – the ShowerTablets with Select function – we have expanded the new operating concept to our entire range, and we look forward to launching an explosion of innovation at the ISH, the world’s biggest sanitation technology fair, from March 12 to March 16, 2013, in Frankfurt/Main, under the motto ´Pleasure at the push of a button´.” At http://select-ish.hansgrohe-int.com a preview of the new world of Select products from the bathroom specialist Hansgrohe will be available in a web special, starting on January 28, 2013. Product innovations will be revealed and introduced one by one on this platform.
Furthermore, visitors to the Hansgrohe Select web special also have a chance to win attractive product test’ kits.

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Within the international Hansgrohe Group, Hansgrohe is the premium brand for bathroom and kitchen fixtures, showers and shower systems as well as thermostat and plumbing technology. Winners of numerous awards throughout the world, the brand’s products stand for modern
technologies, innovative design and a superlative level of functional quality. This explains the success of the brand as a market leader in the shower segment and as one of the leading manufacturers of fixtures. With inventions such as the shower bar, adjustable spray types, the
QuickClean function, the AirPower or the EcoSmart technology as well as the convenient Select technology, Hansgrohe is regarded as one of the leading innovators in the international sanitation industry.

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Find out more about Hansgrohe SE and its brands Hansgrohe and Axor on www.facebook.com/hansgrohe, www.twitter.com/hansgrohe_pr

Further information:

Hansgrohe SE- Public Relations -

Dr. Carsten Tessmer/Franziska Seitz
Phone: +49 (0) 7836/51-3009/-1226
Fax: +49 (0) 7836/51-1170
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.hansgrohe.com